


An encounter

by EmilyinRed



Category: Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:41:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21763915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmilyinRed/pseuds/EmilyinRed
Summary: A different ending of the movie. Neil didn’t commit suicide and he left his home.
Relationships: Todd Anderson/Neil Perry
Kudos: 26





	An encounter

The holiday lamp on Oxford Street has been turned on and the curtain of night is filled with shapes of sea animals and bright flowers. As Todd Anderson passing the bustling crowd, he nuzzles his face into the scarf. It is two days before Christmas, which will be his first Christmas away from home. Yes, the shy boy has finally left for Britain to pursue his dream he ever had since his boyhood, a dream far away from his parents’ expectation. Since they always hoped that he will be a pharmacist as his brother did. Now he studies British literature in UCL, majoring in Shakespeare. He knows who had given him the courage to be himself, though they haven’t seen each other since that snowy ‘mid-summer’ day which was ten years ago.  
What happened that day?  
  
Neil Perry stood before an opened window, holding his father’s pistol in hand. He was naked with the goblin crown above his head. The December wind came through the window and he was freezing cold. It’s time to leave, to leave his desperate and controlled life, he thought, but suddenly felt a strong guilty over himself. What will Mr. Keating and his lovely pals face after his suicide? What will his parents be like when seeing their only son’s dead body? Neil closed his eyes and felt his heart shaking heavily.  
A soft rat-tat broke Neil’s thoughts. He turned his head to the window and bumped into Todd’s pale face, then Knox’s, Charlie’s and Steven’s.  
“What are you doing?” Todd asked in great panic.  
“What are you doing here?” Neil asked back.  
“We’re…” Todd halted, looking at him with hesitation.  
Knox interrupted him, “Neil, you’re the best of us. The best.” He stared at Neil with his big brown eyes, “you can’t give up so easily.”  
“I know.” Neil murmured, lowering his head, “I just don’t know how to, you know, how to get out of this home which looks like a prison to me.”  
“Maybe we find a way for you.” Todd said softly, “Charlie’s cousin is an assistant in a drama school in Boston. If you want, you can go to study here. We swear, if you don’t want you parents to know all of these, we will never tell them, just like we’ll never tell anything about dead poets society to the school board.”  
Neil raised his head. Light of joy glittered in his dark eyes. “That will be wonderful. I mean, if I can study in a drama school, I’ve never dreamed so! But... I don’t have----”  
“We made you some money, Neil. That will be enough for one year’s tuition.” Charlie smiled at him, “Don’t feel embarrassed, we ask you to pay back after becoming the youngest Oliver Award winner, with interest, of course.”  
Neil smiled, too. “But how on earth did you get this money?”  
“Calm down, man. The money is 100% legal. Todd sold his mountain bike. I have saved some money by fixing things, as you know. Knox, well, Knox is Knox.” Stevens pat on Knox’s shoulder and continued, “And our lover Charlie has earned a lot by writing love letters.”  
“Well. Thank you, thank you guys for everything.” Neil’s eyes glanced over every friend and stopped at Todd, “ Don’t let others dominate your life.”  
That night, Neil left a letter for his parents and headed for Boston. And that’s how he began his career as an actor. After graduating from the drama school in Boston, he got full scholarship in Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. There, he began playing Shakespeare in the West End to earn a living. Five years after his debut, Neil became the youngest Lawrence Oliver Award winner and finally fixed the relationship with his parents.  
  
Todd Anderson stops at a poster featuring a young man with goblin crown and realizes he has been entered the West End. The man is Neil. He wears the avocado-green suit just like ten years ago. ‘A Shakespeare classic starring Neil Perry, the youngest Oliver winner ever’, the sentence under says. Todd smiles a little and walks by.  
It begins to snow.   
Todd raises his head and sees thousands of white snowflakes falling freely from the sky. “That which we are,we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts. Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will.” He recites Tennyson’s poem in a soft but firm voice. “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”  
He turned back. Neil’s poster is shinny in the snow.  
“Thank you, Neil.” He said, “I’ve seized my life.”  
Maybe they will never see each other, maybe they will. Maybe Neil had completely forgotten him. But that doesn’t matter any more. Because he had changed him forever.  
And he will never be the same.


End file.
